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The Western Washington Vikings are the sports teams at Western Washington University; the term applies to any of the school's teams. Western Washington University is a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, which participates in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II. The athletic program comprises eight women's sports (basketball, cross country, golf, rowing, soccer, softball, track and field, and volleyball) and six men's sports (basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, and track and field).

Sports played at the club level include men's rowing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, ice hockey, judo, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rugby, baseball, sailing, swimming, tennis, men's and women's ultimate, men's and women's water polo, and water skiing. The university also offers numerous intramural sports to the student body.

Overview
The women's crew program is perhaps the university's most prestigious, winning three consecutive NCAA national championships from 2005-2007. Western Washington is the first school in any of the three Divisions to win three consecutive rowing national championships. Rowing is the only varsity sport in which Western Washington has a national championship (they also won the 2007 Division II National Collegiate Road championship in cycling, which is not sanctioned by the NCAA at any level).

Sanford E. "Sam" Carver is known as "The Father of Western Athletics," having been the coach of WWU's baseball team for 10 years, basketball team for 19 years, football team for 14 years, golf for 22 years, tennis for 18 years and track & field for 22 years. He was also a prolific athlete in his own right at Western, in 1912 and 1913. He was one of the inaugural inductees into Western's Hall of Fame and is also a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame. WWU's on-campus gymnasium was named after him in 1961. The main court at Carver Gym is known through sponsorship as Haggen Court, and home volleyball matches and basketball games are said to take place at "Haggen Court at Carver Gym."

Western was a member of the NAIA from its 1952 formation (under the NAIA moniker) until 1998, when they officially moved to NCAA Division II. 

Conference affiliations
(convert to prose)


 * Tri-Normal League: 1923-1937
 * Washignton Intercollegiate Conference (WinCo): 1938-1947
 * Evergreen Conference: 1948-1984
 * Independent/sport-specific conferences: 1985-1997
 * Pacific West Conference: 1998-2001
 * Great Northwest Athletic Conference: 2002-present

Football
Western is one of five Division II schools in the western United States which currently sponsors football, all of which are united in the GNAC football conference as of 2008. The program was formed in 1903 at the urging of a student, when the university was known as Bellingham State Normal School and only 37 men were enrolled. After playing on the team in 1913, Carver was its coach from 1914 to 1932, with the exception of the years for which there was no team due to World War I, and the 1924 team, when he temporarily vacated the position. The 1939 team was the only one to date to go through an entire season undefeated, finishing at 7-0.